Tombstone epitaph., 1887-11-12
THE QUEEN LAND COURT:
retich wofship of t6e English Drawing

A
 retioh wOsship of f6S English Drawing
 Room-At the Mob's Mercy.
 In England that institution called the drawing room has in it about as much nationality as may be found in any form of fetich worship among the savages of Africa. In tie piercing east winds of March hundreds of delicate young girls, of middle aged lIdies, and tottering old dowagers bare their arms and necks half way to the waist, put on trains to which tho peacock's is dusty joke, and set out in broad daylight to spend an hour or so in their carriages, waiting their turn for presentation or simple attendance. The rudest roughs and coarsest scum of Lon- don gather round the carriages, standing stationary for quarter of an hour at Q time, or moving forward at foot's pace. They press close, flattening their noses against the glass, making brutal remarks and passing round little jokes. The show Is for them as well as for the immediate actors, and they are not minded to lose the benefit of 1t. The pretty young girls have to run the gauntlet of an admiration that is more offensive than flattering. The plain ones hear few unvarnished words which make no pretense of gliding. The stout old ladies with their quivering acres of flesh displayed according to the rules, and the thin quinquagenarians, bronchitic, nervous, anBmic, are saluted with derision and criticised without mercy.
 Only that certain kind of opulent beau ty, which is radiant with health and des- titute of nerves, enjoys the admiration, which to others sounds more like insults than praise; and this kind sits we'll for ward in the carriage, with a white hand and arm and polished shoulder generously displayed; and the roughs are not un- grateful. This is the first of the days ordeals to be gone through by those who attend the drawing rooms on their own account or to present their daughters, as a kind of fetichistic dedication on their in- troduction to society and the marriage market. Within the palace the crush is even more painful than has been the slow transit, semi nude, in broad daylight, in biting wind and through the gross tongued crowd. A well dressed mob strives for front places and first moments as stren- uously as its ragged brethren in the streets. Its language is more choice, and It's fists are not so free; but it's elbows are as sharp, and 1t knows how to use them; while pretty feet, daintily cased in silken stockings and satin shoes, prove that high heels are by no means inefficient pestles.
 There have been drawing rooms where the struggle has been severe indeed, so that the floor has been strewn with flow CTS arl ribbons and jewels, as the wrecks and spells of battle; and whence the fair flesh of the sweet faced combatants has carried away scratches and bruises as tokens of the contest. And all for what To pass, in one rapid moment, before the queen and her court, standing in semi circle little behind her, mute and mo- tionless as so many wax figures at Madame Tussaud's. There is no kindly converse tion, no pleasant speeches, as in the even- ing receptions in Italy, say, where the queen receives the same as any other lady, and her dignity as queen enhances her sweetness as hostess. It is a mere lifeless form, out of which every fragment of hu- manity and common sense has been ab- stracted. But all this personal discomfort and distress the women of England will ingly undergo for the sake of the fetich they have created and now adore.-The Argonaut.